Snack & Share and Creative Writing

I found a really great website, blazinglogs.com , that is a big screen view of a crackling fire. During their creative writing I had the fire projected onto the big screen. It turned out to be our longest writing session yet! They were all quiet as mice as they wrote about what snowmen do at night. Later in the week, we invited Mr. Anderson's class over for a First Grade Book Club by the fire!! Oprah has nothing on our Book Club! We all heard the same read aloud, Emmitt's Snow Ball, and then wrote the characters, setting and favorite part on our snack bag. When all students were done writing on their bag, the bags were filled with popcorn and the students were buddied up to discuss the story. We were AMAZED at the conversations the students were having with each other. It was extremely fun to listen to and they were really able to demonstrate a deeper understanding of the story.

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Metacognition

This week we worked on metacognition, or thinking about our thinking. We learned that good readers are thinking and making connections as they read. After demonstrating the thoughts that go through a good readers head during our read aloud, it was then time for some brave volunteers to give it a try. Below are students reading a book about arctic animals while their partner holds up a thought bubble and shares their thinking with the class. They had to start their sentences with "I wonder", "I notice", or "I predict". They did such a great job and those that were listening were quite the captive audience!

A Fun Way To Practice Word Wall Words!

Here is our reigning champion demonstrating one of our Literacy Center games. The students must read the sight word on the cup before adding it to the tower. This is an excellent way to work on fluency, and the kids LOVE it!! Enjoy!
Thank you to our camera man, Hunter.

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Cause and Effect

This week we read The Napping House by Audrey Wood. We really focused on identifying the many different examples of cause and effect present throughout the story. We learned that cause is why something happened and the effect is what happened. The students then chose an example of this that occurred in the story to write and illustrate.